Swing Low, Sweet Harriet
by unprettier
Summary: Doyle's ex-wife Harry drops by the new offices of Angel Investigations and receives some shocking news. Oneshot.


A hotel wasn't the most traditional place for a detective agency but then again nothing about Angel Investigations could be considered traditional. Somehow it made sense anyway. The Hyperion was everything their previous office wasn't. Big, beautiful, and not blown to smithereens. Those were three reasons as good as any to set up shop there. Especially the last one.

Harry stood outside the doors of the hotel and peeked inside. She wanted to make sure she had the right place before she barged into an abandoned hotel looking for her ex-husband. Who knows what kind of people or things could be inside if she did indeed have the wrong address? Unfortunately, she couldn't see a thing. But she could hear a laugh and she knew instantly that it belonged to Cordelia.

Harry felt proud. She hadn't spoken to any of them yet but it certainly seemed like they were doing well for themselves. They had a new homebase, Cordelia sounded happy, and she hadn't heard from Doyle in a long time so she knew he was happy too. He would've called her to complain about something if he wasn't.

"Hello?" Harry said as she walked through the doors. The place didn't look abandoned at all on the inside. In fact, it looked pretty great. She assumed Cordelia had tidied the place up but judging from Angel's previous apartment, it was probably him that did all the decorating. He kind of had a knack for it.

Cordelia was sitting behind the counter, thumbing through a stupid gossip magazine, and clearly not paying attention to what was going on around her. Harry was already at the counter by the time she realized she was there and even then it didn't register that it was actually her.

"Hi, Harry," said Cordelia and it took another 15 seconds until her brain processed what she had just said. "Harry?!" she said again, only much louder this time so Angel could hear her from his office. "Angel, it's Harry!"

"Oh, I can't stay long. I just dropped in to see Francis."

Angel finally exited his office on the end of her sentence but he immediately wished he could go right back inside until Harry was gone. This was not good. They had completely blanked on telling her about what happened to Doyle. With everything that happened around the time, it was understandable but it didn't make this any easier.

He looked over at Cordelia who wasn't doing as good of a job as he was at hiding the panic on her face and silently decided he'd be the one to deliver the bad news.

"Harry—" he started but she either didn't hear him or just ignored him altogether.

"I love the new place. Lots of space."

"Well—" he tried again and this time he was interrupted by someone else entirely.

"Hello, hello," Gunn chirped as he strolled down the steps from the front entrance and stopped in front of Harry, "Hello."

Harry grinned. "Hi."

"Gunn, now's not—" Angel began but sighed when another entered the lobby. "Wesley."

Wesley stopped short and beamed politely at the lady. "A client, I presume?"

Harry felt even prouder than earlier. The last time she was in town, it was three of them in that small office. Now there were at least five of them in a huge hotel. Talk about growing your business.

"No, I'm Harry. Francis—" she sighed. She was never going to get used to referring to him as his last name. Her last name, too. "—Doyle's wife. Ex."

Wesley's face fell at the mention of Doyle's name. "Ah, I'm very sorry—"

Angel stepped in quickly. The last thing she needed was to hear about what happened from a stranger. It was bad enough she had to hear it as late as it was. Hell, it was bad she had to hear it at all.

"Gunn, Wesley, could you guys give us a moment?" he asked, giving them a look they recognized all too well. A look that meant he wasn't asking them to do anything. He was telling them.

"Sure," Gunn agreed as Wesley added, "Of course."

The two made their way to the other side of the room and Harry felt immediately uncomfortable. Something was going on. Maybe she had shown up at a bad time. If that was the case, she didn't want to intrude. So she figured that was her cue to head on out too.

"You know if Francis isn't here, I could drop by another—"

"He's dead." Angel didn't bother to look over at Cordelia. He knew she was probably staring daggers through him right at that very moment for being so blunt about the death of Harry's ex-husband. But there was no use for tact in this situation. Doyle was dead. Harry needed to know. There was no way to sugarcoat it. "It happened a couple of months ago."

"He died a hero," added Cordelia, as if that made any difference or made Harry feel any better. She knew it probably didn't but knowing how he sacrificed himself to help so many others always made her sleep a little better at night so she felt it was important for Harry to know that too.

Harry didn't respond to anything they said. She didn't know how. If she'd gotten this news over the phone she could have broke down into a million pieces, screamed into a pillow, even punched a wall. But instead she was standing dead center in the middle of the Hyperion Hotel and her brain completely stopped functioning.

She didn't even realize Cordelia had left the room until she was standing back in front of her with a video tape in her hands. Cordy was also talking but the words weren't registering so she just held the tape out until Harry took it.

"I just thought you should have a copy," Cordelia was saying when Harry's hearing started working again, "It's a commercial for Angels Investigations. We were filming it the day..." She took a deep breath and decided she wasn't even going to go there. "It's funny. Very Doyle."

Harry couldn't imagine herself sitting down to watch Doyle in his last moments. She still had no idea how he died. Or why. Or when, exactly. Cordelia nor Angel were volunteering any information and she refused to ask. She didn't even care, she decided. She didn't want to know. They probably knew that which is why they said nothing.

"Thank you," she said, fiddling with the tape in her hands. She wasn't capable of expressing her gratitude at the moment but she did appreciate the gesture. "I should go now. I mean, I only stopped by for a moment."

Angel and Cordelia shared another look. Neither of them knew what to say to her. They knew there was nothing they could say to her. Doyle died right in front of them months ago but for Harry, it was happening right now. Cordy wondered if she should've stayed but it was obvious Harry wanted to be alone. The three of them were the only ones close to Doyle but they weren't close with each other. The fact that they never told her about what happened until now probably made it worse anyway.

The two led Harry to the door and she stopped to look back at everyone in the room.

"It was nice to meet you all," she said and then took one last look at the grand hotel. It really was an incredible space. "I'm sure Francis would've liked it here. You're all one big happy family now." She tried her hardest to keep it together but her voice broke as she added, "He needed that."

Cordelia's heart was breaking for her. "Harry..."

Harry wiped the few tears that fell out of her eyes as quickly as they appeared. This was not the time or place. She could go home and fall apart later. All she cared about now was getting the hell out of there and never looking back. She didn't blame any of them but it was just too painful to stay a second longer.

"Goodbye," she said and then she was gone.

There was silence after that until Cordelia backhanded Angel on the shoulder. "We should've told her when it happened!" she grumbled, "Look at the poor girl, she's broken!"

Angel ignored the stinging on his shoulder and kept his gaze on Harry as she made her way down the street. But his mind was on Doyle's final moments. It was horrible of him but Harry was the very last thing on his mind after Doyle's death. In fact, he practically forgot she existed until today.

He frowned. "I just didn't think..."

"I know. Me neither," Cordelia admitted, shutting the door behind her as Harry disappeared into the distance.


End file.
